Progressive Gaming reports profitable quarter

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005 | 11:13 a.m.

A Las Vegas gaming-equipment manufacturer involved in a partnership to develop an automatic table game tracking system today reported its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, a first in the company's history.

Progressive Gaming International Corp., formerly known as Mikohn Gaming, reported net income of $1.9 million, 7 cents a share, compared with a loss of $900,000, 4 cents a share, for the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenue increased 7 percent to $18.6 million for the company, which recorded the highest level of systems revenue since the company introduced its CasinoLink and TableLink tracking systems.

Progressive beat expectations of Thomson First Call analysts, who predicted earnings of 6 cents a share.

Earlier this year Progressive announced a partnership with slot machine giant International Game Technology, Reno, and Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master Inc. to develop a table game tracking system using radio frequency identification technology. The system, which would use microchips embedded in playing cards and casino chips, would monitor every card dealt and bet placed to establish player betting patterns and more accurately distribute comps.

In a conference call this morning, executives said Progressive is a company in transition.

"The company has a whole new look and feel to it," said Chief Financial Officer Michael Sicuro, who explained that the company is exiting from lower-margin products like slot-machine signs and displays and into more sophisticated software products like tracking systems.

In the second quarter, the company recorded a net gain of $2.5 million on the sale of its interior sign division and slot hardware. The gain was offset by one-time costs related to the transformation to technology-based product development.

Russel McMeekin, president and chief executive of the company, said not only has the company been profitable for four consecutive quarters, but it has met or exceeded financial expectations for six straight quarters.

"Our management team continues to execute on numerous strategic initiatives that focus on higher margin technology and content solutions while eliminating lower margin businesses, in parallel with growing our pipeline and backlog of contracts for our integrated casino management solutions and our newest table game, Texas Hold 'Em Bonus Poker," McMeekin said.